Wednesday, November 15, 2017

WOW! Koch Brothers Said to Be Backers of Time Inc. Acquisition

Time Inc. is said to be in talks to sell itself to the Meredith Corporation, in a deal backed by Charles (82) and David (77) Koch, reportsThe New York Times.

According to NYT, talks between Time Inc., the publisher of Timeand People, and Meredith, the publisher of Family Circle and Better Homes and Gardens, fizzled this year. The new round of negotiations, motivated by the surprise entry of the Kochs, could lead to a quick deal, according to people involved in the discussions.

The Kochs have tentatively agreed to back Meredith’s offer with an equity injection of more than $500 million, the people with knowledge of the talks said.

Says NYT, An obstacle that stalled negotiations earlier this year was Meredith’s inability to secure sufficient financing from banks. With the addition of the Kochs, with their deep pockets and apparent desire to make themselves players on the media landscape, that problem could vanish.

It is not clear of how much influence the brothers would have over editorial content but at their age, one would think that this is an attempt to get influence over a major media outlet rather than just a play to make another billion dollars 10 years out.

In either case, I am not expecting Ron Paul to be on the cover of TIME magazine anytime soon.

The Kochs had an opportunity to buy CBS in the early 1980s. Instead it ended up with Westinghouse, as the broadcasting business was apparently too complicated and risky for CK. This was in the pre-Fox 4th network era.